The School menu next week

The battles of 1066

This week, Mr Lodge's Year 11 History class re-enacted the THREE battles of 1066. On 20^th September at Gate Fulford (York) the Viking leader Harald Hardrada defeated the local Earls Edwin and Morcar. On 25^th Septemper at Stamford Bridge (not the Chelsea one but on fields outside York) King Harold Godwinson's army surprised Hardrada's unprepared army and beat them. However, on hearing the Duke of Normandy had invaded England, Harold raced over 200 miles back down south with his tired army in order to fight him at Hastings. On 14^th October the two armies fought all day and the Anglo-Saxons were beaten. Harold lost an eye, his life and his kingdom. William duly became William the Conqueror and began to build hundreds of castles and churches to confirm he was in charge! Luckily the Year 11s survived their battles and peace has been restored to Top Pitch!

Mr Lodge

It has been wonderful to welcome back the children this week and to hear about all the exciting things they have done during the Easter holidays. It certainly feels as if spring has sprung seeing the children run around our beautiful School grounds at break times in their summer uniforms.

Looking more closely at the residents of our natural environment, Nursery and Reception have begun learning about minibeasts this week. Some tiny caterpillars have even been welcomed into Pre-prep. Reception children have also started looking at different minibeast habitats. Year 1 have had a busy start to the term baking cookies. They have also started their topic on transport and now have a mischievous bus living in their classroom. I look forward to hearing more about this as their topic progresses! Year 2 has been preparing for their upcoming assembly and are very excited about retelling one of their favourite children's stories.

Both Year 1 and Year 3 have been showing off their green fingers. Year 1 have planted sunflower and runner bean seeds and, in their Science lessons, Year 3 have begun an investigation on whether plants need leaves to successfully grow. They are taking careful measurements at regular intervals to compare the growth of tomato and geranium plants with and without leaves. In Science this week, Year 6 have been making casein plastic out of milk and white vinegar as part of their work on exploring reversible and irreversible changes.

Year 4 are continuing their topic work on Victorians this term. This week they have been learning about Victorian schooling, in preparation for their immersive experience when they head off to Milestones Museum in a couple of weeks' time and Year 5 have travelled even further back in time with the start of their history topic on the Mayan civilisation. They have researched where in Central America the Maya lived and have compared when the Maya lived in relation to other periods of history that they have studied.

What a lot has been crammed into just four days – I hope everyone enjoys a good rest after all their endeavours at School this week!

Mrs Nicholson

Stars of the week

Nursery – Charlie R for her focus and concentration during mark-making activities.

Reception – Edie B for a fantastic start to the term and careful, imaginative work creating a minibeast habitat.

Annabelle S for sharing her knowledge of minibeasts with the class and great work with shapes in maths.

Year 1 – Alex W for a wonderful attitude to learning!

Year 2 – Henry P for incredible role-model behaviour – your manners are beautiful, and you listen attentively during lessons.

Mrs Henry

Possibly the busiest, and some would argue most enjoyable, term of the year started on Tuesday and the upturn in weather has certainly led to a positive atmosphere throughout the School. Each lunch break there are more and more pupils taking advantage of the conditions to play football, tennis and cricket, or simply just to sit on the hill, take in some sun and watch the events before them.

The School week began with a short assembly from Mrs Knox, Mr Southee and myself, congratulating the pupils on the inspection report, picking out some highlights of the upcoming term and looking at the many opportunities the pupils can get involved with this term. One of these, Community Week, was the subject of Mr Watson's assembly on Friday. Taking place after half-term, this is an opportunity for pupils to get involved with a local organisation for half a day in a voluntary capacity, developing empathy, setting a positive example and possibly learning a new skill. This year we are working in partnership with the Knowle Park Trust, Inter-generational Music Making (IMM), Sayers Croft, Friends of The Hurtwood and Slow Ways, amongst others.

Congratulations go to the following pupils for achieving a multiple of 25 Merit points and therefore attending celebration snack break this morning; Lockie B, Oliver D, Elfie G, Ethan G, Thibaut J, Harry L (Year 7), Ollie K, Arthur M, Holly R (Year 8), Monty L (Year 9), Henry C, Jess I, Annabel O and Grace S (Year 10). We also had one person receive their blazer badge in assembly for reaching 100 Merit points; Ben R (Year 8). Well done to you all for your ongoing efforts.

Mr Wilson

The Summer Term is always full of House competitions. The pupils in the Prep School will play their first matches in the beginner and advanced chess competitions. The Prep and Senior pupils will also be able to participate in House photography and House drama during this half-term. Every pupil who enters one of these competitions will earn three House points just for participating and have the chance to win a House Award at the end of the term. That is remembering all the sports tournaments too! Click here to access the House Google site, where you can find the current leaderboards and a schedule of House events for the Summer Term.

Coming into the Summer Term, Buzzard has the lead over the other Houses, but the other Houses are by no means out of the race! With all the competitions and chances to earn stars and other rewards, each House has a huge opportunity to gain ground on its closest rival and jump above them in the standings.

Mr Gritton

Mr Boden

Welcome back to School, for an action-packed Summer Term! Although the temperature isn't necessarily making it feel too much like summer, the UV rays are building, so please do remember to provide your child with a named bottle of sun cream for School (especially for days when your child is outside for games for several hours). Full, named water bottles are also essential this term, and antihistamine (eg Cetirizine hydrochloride for those aged 6+) should be taken before School for those who suffer with hayfever – tree pollen is already causing some discomfort.

As the children are spending more time outdoors, it's also worth keeping an eye out for ticks. These are very easy to remove with tweezers – see the information from the NHS on ticks and Lyme disease here and below:

At School this week some "Calpol fastmelts" have been found lying on the floor in one of our corridors. Please be reminded that pupils should not be carrying medication on their person at School. As we have pupils as young as three years-old at School, we need to ensure they do not pick up lost medications such as this and ingest them out of curiosity. We have plenty of paracetamol and other "over the counter" medications in the medical room, so there is no need for pupils to bring any to School.

Finally, reminders for next week:

• Battlefields trip (Year 9) departing Sunday 28^th April – any remaining medications should be handed in at the office as soon as possible next week for the attention of Mrs Sarjant.
• Year 8 HPV immunisations on Thursday 25^th April – short sleeves please!
• Residential trips in June for Years 3,4,5,6 and 10 – please remember to hand in completed medical forms by the end of April latest.

Have a lovely weekend – fingers crossed for the weather to warm up a bit!

The School Nurses

PADoK

Dates for your diary:

SAVE THE DATE!

What: Midsummer Charity Night – raising funds for SARCOMA

When: Saturday 8^th June

Where: Hurtwood Polo Club

With: Food, Bar, The Accidentals (Mr Rye’s fabulous band)

Duke of Kent School Flyers

Wednesdays 08.30-09.30 (Tara Coles and Lois Williams)

Come and join us. So much fun to be had and so good for the soul.

Duke of Kent School Singers

Thursdays 08.20-09.00 (Cathy Williams)

It was lovely to be back after the Easter break. We warmed up our voices by singing Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds, which took some of us back to the Performing Arts Department’s lockdown project! We sang Eleanor Rigby by The Beatles, which was really fun. Mr Rye showed us a video of an inspiring choral performance of You’re the Voice (John Farnham), which we started working on at the end of last term. As always, it was a fun 40 minutes. Thanks to Mr Rye and Mrs Williams for all they do.

Please do come along next term, at any time for a listen or a sing. No pressure to perform, just enjoy it week on week. Hope to see you there!

Any questions, please do contact Cathy Williams rhodricathy@sky.com/07813 282910 or please just come along!

A relaxed singing group run by our Director of Music, Mr Rye, who kindly gives up his time to teach us how to sing. It is always fun and uplifting rather than a pressured environment. Our focus is always on enjoying singing and getting the most out of our time together.

PADoK Core Control

Strengthen your body, improve your health with our physio-led stability group. Friday mornings 08.30, Astroturf

Starting on Friday 26^th April. 08.30 – 09.15.

A quick reminder that our PADoK Core club will be starting next Friday. So mark your calendars and get ready for some core-tastic fun!  

We would also like to extend a warm welcome to any new joiners! If you know someone who would love to join in on the action, please feel free to forward this message or ask them to contact Julia at julia@therunningspecialists for more information. You can also reach out to Julia on WhatsApp at 07760275444.

Don't forget, we'll be outside every chance we get, so get ready to enjoy the fresh air and sunshine while we work on our core strength together! Looking forward to seeing you all next Friday morning! Let's make it an incredible start to the Core club!

PADoK Book Club

(Claire Newman)

This term we will be reading a new book called The Household written by Stacey Halls. We hope you enjoy it.

London, 1847. In a quiet house in the countryside outside London, the finishing touches are being made to welcome a group of young women. The house and its location are top secret, its residents unknown to one another, but the girls have one thing in common: they are fallen. Offering refuge for prostitutes, petty thieves and the destitute, Urania Cottage is a second chance at life – but how badly do they want it?

Meanwhile, a few miles away in a Piccadilly mansion, millionairess Angela Burdett-Coutts, one of the benefactors of Urania Cottage, makes a discovery that leaves her cold. Her stalker of ten years has been released from prison, and she knows it's only a matter of time before their nightmarish game resumes once more.

As the women's worlds collide in ways they could never have expected, they will discover that freedom always comes at a price …

The Household is the new novel from the award-winning, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Familiars, The Foundling and Mrs England. Set against Charles Dickens' home for fallen women and inspired by real figures from history, it is Stacey Halls' most ambitious and captivating novel yet.

Senior School optional hoodie

The Senior School hoodies have been redesigned by members of the School Council and the finished product can be seen below. They have done a fantastic job at putting this design together and now finally getting to see the finished product.

This new hoodie is available from Stevenson's on their website: https://www.stevensons.co.uk/.  There is also the option to have your child's initials printed onto the front of the hoodie for a slight additional cost, something we would advise, to avoid mixing up tops with other pupils. This hoodie is not an essential item of School uniform, so there is no expectation for pupils to have it.

If you wish to see the sample, please pop into the Main Office and have a look.

School social media

At Duke of Kent School we have three social media platforms; Instagram (dukeofkentschool), Twitter (@DoKSchool) and Facebook (Duke of Kent School). All of our social media accounts are public.

We recommend following all three accounts to receive push notifications with news, updates, educational articles, interactions with other schools, communities and public figures.